John Zeitler

This week, in lieu of actual content, I’m going to give a quick set of overviews of some– but not all– of what I picked up during my recent trip to Tekkoshocon. I got games, manga, and a couple of sets, so there’s plenty to cover here until I can get some life stuff back in order and some time together to start writing again. Today we take a very brief look at a couple of manga picked up during the course of the con, even if– for inexplicable reasons– they weren’t bought at the con.

I talk a lot about how cuteness pretty much rules my life, but in the end it turns out that not every adorable little thing is as sweet as it looks. Case in point would be Arina Tanemura’s manga The Gentlemen’s Alliance Cross. Don’t get me wrong, I like it. The artwork is fantastic, the storyline is interesting, and it’s fully translated and done, so it’s just a matter of one book a week from here on out. But the story goes dark really fast, and it seems to be the bearer of one of the worst cases of mood whiplash I’ve seen in a long time. The main character herself is pretty much the embodiment of this, as she’s a former delinquent/gang girl who went straight due to… well, it’s not clear, because she’s still quite hot-tempered even while playing the part of social star. That’s what makes it interesting, because there’s a tale in there that I want to read.

On the other hand, I also picked up the first omnibus volume of Fushigi Yugi, long hailed as a classic of manga, and I have to say… it’s not really grabbing me quite yet. It’s hard to get a real bead on where the story really lies there: it’s a character-driven plot about Miaka, or it’s historical fiction about ancient China, or it’s a fantasy tale about time travel, or whatever. Granted, it’s just the first volume, and this series is almost twenty years old so some pacing hiccups are to be expected, but it’s still feeling mighty slow and ponderous. Fushigi Yugi is a manga with a lot of weight behind it, both critical and simple physical, and as a result it’s easy to feel a little intimidated by it. Still gonna try to get through it.

Oh, and as a final little coda to this, Rick discovered that in volume 14 of Hayate the Combat Butler, the translators must have taken a side trip to Pittsburgh. One of the main cast’s younger siblings is apparently a Yinzer (spelled “y’ins” here– not like there’s an entry in ol’ Noah’s book for the word anyway).